1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording method, an information recording apparatus, a program and a computer readable information storage medium for writing data to an information recording medium having a plurality of recording layers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, along with improvement of the performance in a personal computer (PC), the personal computer becomes to be able to handle AV (Audio-Visual) information such as music, pictures or such. Since such AV information has a very large information size, an optical disk such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) has taken attention as an information recording medium, and, along with price reduction thereof, an optical disk apparatus as an information recording/reproduction apparatuses have spread as peripheral devices for PCs.
As a DVD-ROM, there exist DVDs having single recording layers and DVDs each having two recording layers. However, as writeable recording-type DVDs, only DVD having single recording layers, such as DVD+R (Recordable), DVD−RW (Rewriteable), DVD-RAM (Random Access Memory) or such exist. Therefore, a recording-type double-layer DVD having two recording layers has been studied recently. This medium has a configuration such that, as a result of data being written thereto in the same manner as that in the DVD-ROM, it has a recording capacity same as that of the DVD-ROM, and also, it has a compatibility with the DVD-ROM.
A reproduction-only-type double-layer DVD has two types of track systems, i.e., a parallel track path system (PTP system) in which a track on a second layer has a direction from the central side to the peripheral side same as that in a track of a first layer, and an opposite track path system (OTP system) in which a track on a second layer has a direction from the peripheral side to the central side.
FIG. 12 generally shows a logical format of a recording-type double-layer DVD in the PTP system while FIG. 13 generally shows a logical format of a recording-type double-layer DVD in the OTP system. In FIGS. 12 and 13, the left hand corresponds to the central side of the optical disk while the right hand corresponds to the peripheral side of the optical disk.
As shown in FIG. 12, in each layer of a first recording layer and a second recording layer, from the central side of the optical disk, a lead-in zone (LEAD-IN ZONE), a data zone (DATA ZONE) and a lead-out zone (LEAD-OUT ZONE) are provided. In other words, in each layer of the first and second recording layers, data is written from the central side toward the peripheral side of the optical disk. It is noted that, in the PTP system, a radial position of an address at which the data zone starts is equal between the first and second layer. For example, each of both starts at a physical address of 30000H.
As shown in FIG. 13, in a first recording layer, from the central side of the optical disk, a lead-in zone (LEAD-IN ZONE), a data zone (DATA ZONE) and a middle zone (MIDDLE ZONE) are provided. In a second recording layer, from the peripheral side of the optical disk, a middle zone (MIDDLE ZONE), a data zone (DATA ZONE) and a lead-out zone (LEAD-OUT ZONE) are provided. In other words, in the first recording layer, data is written from the central side toward the peripheral side of the optical disk, while, in the second recording layer, data is written from the peripheral side toward the central side of the optical disk. It is noted that, in the OTP system, a radial position of an address at which the data zone starts in the second recording layer is equal to a radial position of an address at which the data zone ends in the first recording layer. Further, a physical address at which the data zone starts in the second recording layer is an address bit-inverted from an address at which the data zone ends in the first recording layer.
Thus, in the logical format in the recording-type double-layer DVD, the data other than the user data (for example, the lead-in (LEAD-IN) data, lead-out (LEAD-OUT) data, middle (MIDDLE) data or such) is written before or after the user data.
On the other hand, a technology of previously creating data to be written to a multilayer optical disk having a plurality of recording layers has been proposed. According to the technology, data to be written to a multilayer optical disk is previously created, and, upon switching of a recording layer, data other than user data (for example, lead-out data) is written (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2000-48542).